Page 105 of Forever Dark
He turned toward the lot, then looked back over one shoulder.
“It’s going to take a while for the revival to hand over the employee records,” he said.“In the meantime, my department is piecing together a list from socials who attended there.I’ll interview the ones we identify.With or without you.”
Selena nodded.“I don’t have the energy for the fight.Fine.Do what you have to do.”
Connor headed back into the department, shoulders set, his footsteps unable to hide his anger; back toward the work while she remained outside with the evening wind moving at her coat and the sickening knowledge that she was beginning to come apart at the seams.Harlan County was winning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Connor headed back from one of the offices carrying a piece of paper he hoped would get them closer to the killer.He found Arnold at the front desk with a yellow legal pad, a half-eaten doughnut, and the expression of a man trying to convince himself that paperwork still counted as progress.
Beside the desk, Cheryl stood on a step stool watering the department’s one surviving plant, a broad-leafed thing in a clay pot that had outlived three dispatchers, a copier fire, and one deputy’s attempt to keep it in his office.
“What now, boss?”Arnold asked.
“I’ve got Dana in archives identifying everyone she can that works or attends the revival from their socials,” Connor said.“It’s not an exhaustive list, but until we get a warrant, it’s the best thing we have in terms of people online who have mentioned or worked with the revival.Dana will see if any of them have criminal records.She’s already given me a preliminary list, so in the meantime, we’ll do the leg work.”
Connor handed the list over.
Arnold looked up first.“Please tell me we’re not calling all these people.”
Connor set a paper cup of coffee beside him.“We’re calling all these people.”
Cheryl tipped the watering can and asked, “Where’s Selena?”
Connor glanced over.“She’s gone home.”
A slight smile touched Cheryl’s mouth as she turned the pot a fraction and studied the soil.
Connor pointed at her.“You don’t have to be that happy about it.”
Cheryl looked down at him, all calm innocence.“Happy about what?”
“Don’t do that.”
“I’m watering a plant.”
“You’re watering it smugly.”
That got a snort out of Arnold, which he tried and failed to turn into a cough.
Cheryl stepped down from the stool.“I’m just saying, the building’s a little less tense when nobody’s glaring at each other from opposite ends of the hallway.”
Connor picked up his hat from the counter, then set it back down.“We don’t glare.”
Arnold looked up from the pad.“You absolutely do.”
Connor gave him a look.
Arnold lifted the doughnut in surrender.“Respectfully, Sheriff.”
Cheryl set the watering can aside.“Anyway, if Agent Raven needed rest, that sounds sensible to me.”
Connor picked up one of Arnold’s pages.“This from the woman who once told me sleep was for county employees and dispatchers were above such weakness?”
“That was during storm season,” Cheryl said.“Different rules applied.”
For a moment the room felt almost normal.Phones rang in the back.Cheryl moved a file from one pile to another and the plant dripped quietly onto the desk like it had been loved too hard.
